New Constantine
New Constantine is a settlement in the southeast of Caesar's Territory. Originally settled by the inhabitants of Vault 32, the town quickly established relations with the tribals and thrived off of trade, agriculture, ranching, and mining. History Vault 32 was built to replicate the old wild west, with entertainment facilities including a cybernetic rodeo, shooting range, saloon, and even a brothel. Large sections of the vault were constructed of wood or left with bare rock walls. A diverse array of people was chosen to inhabit Vault 32: Native Americans, hunters, miners, railroad workers, migrant workers, a sheriff, a bank robber, a communist saboteur, Chinese from the local camp, and a handful of miscellaneous outlaws. Weeks before the Great War ravaged the earth, Vault 32’s Overseer, Sheriff Blake, received the resident manifest. The records showed that any residents spoke exclusively Chinese or Spanish or could hardly understand English. After some investigating, Blake learned from other Overseers that many Vault-Tec facilities were used for experimentation, often at the expense of the resident’s safety. In response, he reached out to Dr. Abraham, a linguists studying the area’s native languages, and invited them to the vault. Vault 32 immediately ran into trouble. It was planned to hold 150 people, but the vault was not even half finished by the the the bombs dropped. In addition, there were 56 Vault-Tec employees inside the vault at the time and many residents brought unregistered family members and friends, swelling the population to over 450. Overseer Blake ordered the construction of the vault to continue, keeping the door open for another week to bring in all the supplies and equipment from the warehouses and railyards. The expansion was expedited when the workers tunneled into an abandoned gold mine, vastly expanding the available space. Unfortunately, Blake was poisoned less than a month after the door sealed. Unbeknownst that this was part of the experiment parameters, an intentional failure of the automatic bartenders, the vault quickly fractured into language-based factions, each trying to blame the others for the assassination and seize power for themselves. Unable to communicate effectively, the Spanish, Chinese, English, and Natives each locked themselves in different sections of the vault. The Hispanics ended up in the engineering section and, being mostly agricultural and assembly line workers, were completely unprepared for the reactor meltdown when the Chinese cut off their section’s water supply. Abraham was able to negotiate a truce at the last moment, making himself Overseer and saving the entire vault. The vault’s population had already doubled by 2092, and it was impossible to feed six times the expected population with less than half the expected supplies and a quarter of the planned hydroponics facilities. The vault was scheduled to stay sealed for 70 years, but in truth it never really closed. Scouts maintained limited contact with the tribals the whole time, purchasing excess food and supplies for the growing underground metropolis. By 2100, there were already farms set up outside, along with a trading post or two. By 2140, the city of New Hellas was the main population center, while Vault 32 served as a fortress, barracks, palace, and gold mine. In the meantime, the tribes of the South-West had developed a variety of languages, descendant from English, Spanish, native languages, and even Chinese and Arabic. Due to the Vault populace’s strong multilingual traditions, the merchants of New Hellas were the only ones capable of communicating with all of them effectively. Their ships sailed the entire length of the Gila River, laiden with gold, guns, gecko hides, herbs, tribal arts and drugs. Soon, they monopolised trade between California and the lands to the east. Officially, the US Constitution and legal code still applied, though the Bill of Rights, Congress, and the Supreme Court had been suspended since 2077. The entire nation was understood to be under martial law and the Overseer was declared Commander in Chief, in the absence of a true president. Effectively, this meant a dictatorship. The Overseer, as the acting president, had a legal claim to the entire continent, which served as a pretext for any war they wished to fight. Usually, these wars were waged to protect trade routes and allied tribes against the more barbaric raiders. Only a few wars were declared for conquest, as the city constantly required more farming and grazing land. The army was small, but skilled. Tribals acted as scouts and guides, in addition to skirmishers and ambushers. Meanwhile, former caravan guards formed the elite core of the fighting force, lead by skilled Californian mercenaries, and could effortlessly destroy a tribal army or camp. Conflict gradually began to flare up between the Supreme Mercantile Council, made up of the trade company leaders, and the Overseers’ governments over the legality of slavery. At first companies would buy slaves from the tribes to sell to outside buyers, keeping these dealings far from the city. This behavior was condemned, but it was impossible for the government to act against it. Eventually, some wealthy patricians started building country estates just outside municipal boundaries, surrounded by vast tracts of land worked by slaves. In 2167, Overseer Maria Li decided to crack down on the practice. While she abhorred the way slaves were often abused and beaten by their masters, she had no personal objections to the system. Nevertheless, the citizens were growing concerned. A series of wars in northern Mexico just before her appointment had flooded the markets with slaves, driving agricultural workers, small farmers, and even some craftsmen out of business. Facing a rebellion in the city center, she hired an army from a visiting chieftain and sent it to raze a few of these plantations. The Patricians of these estates managed to defend their mansions with small but disciplined guard units, essentially a small slave army. The SMC stepped in on the third day, bribing the tribal army to turn its swords on the government. Maria gave a rousing speech, bringing together an army of peasants to defend the city center from the tribal band, but soon the SMC bought reinforcements. Five tribes laid siege to the city under the SMC’s orders, and soon half the burroughs had surrendered. The rest was soon sacked. In the aftermath, a mercantile republic was established. The SMC was granted nearly all powers, though any tax or draft on the general populace would require the approval of a representative council, with a member for each residential block in the city, every agricultural village, and the head of each plantation. The army was gradually reduced to a vestigial force, with all fighting being done by hired tribes. The settlements were guarded by independent armies of western mercenaries and tribal slaves, owned collectively by the richest men of the borough or town and mainly intended to protect their property from unhappy commoners and slaves. Slavery was fully legalised, In response to protests, a ration of bread and meat was guaranteed to each citizen. In addition, an annual circus was set up with games, races, parades, dancing, and alcohol for all, even the slaves. A wall was built to relieve fears about another sacking of the city. At first, these obligations were hard to meet, but the rise of the NCR brought a massive rise in trade. Soon, hardly any citizen had to do manual labour themselves, while the entire city enjoyed various luxuries. Baths, plazas, and temples (glorified, state-owned drug houses and brothels) bought the population’s loyalty. The city grew so much that the walls were soon superfluous, a raised walkway in the middle of the city instead of a perimeter wall. The prosperity was interrupted for over 80 years. However, on the far side of Arizona a new force was rising. Edward Sallow was coallessing his tribes into the greatest fighting force the east had ever seen. The tribes were unable to resist, so they fled right into the trade routes of New Hellas and the territories of her allies. The SMC, not realising the scale of the threat, responded as usual to the pleas for help emanating from its northern allies. It hired warriors from the tribes of the south and sent them to the war zones. For the first time in the history of the Republic, they suffered a defeat. Decades of relative peace, sponsored by New Hellas, had left the southern tribes weaker than those fleeing Caesar. Trade along Interstates 10 and 17 was completely blocked, while a former ally along the vital I8 route turned to banditry when they realised the Republic was weak. The leading companies of the SMC immediately fell into the red. To defeat the migrant coalition, they needed a real army. They needed the skilled mercenaries of Mexico and California plus an entire arsenal from the Van Graffs or Gun Runners. However, the SMC members were unwilling to front the cost themselves, so they asked the People’s Council to authorise a ration cuts, tax increases, and a limited draft. Since the rations were no longer necessary, the money was redirected towards the purchase of arms. The Gun Runners were unwilling to ship weapons so far outside their usual territory, so the weapons were deposited in a trading post along I8. By now, the Frightened Ones had organised, so when the traitors told them about the shipment they had no trouble overrunning the trade post and seizing the guns for themselves. The Migration Wars dragged on for 7 years, from 2248 until 2255, when the Legion itself finally arrived. New Hellas was more militarised than ever. So many fighting men had been hired by the SMC that the Mojave was left open to the raiders fleeing the NCR and northern Mexico fell into anarchy. The remnants of the Frightened Ones either joined New Hellas or were enslaved by the Legion. A new set of walls were built as skirmishes erupted throughout the countryside. Within the city, some third and fourth generation slaves thought the Legion would be their saviors and launched a revolt. The newer ones knew better. After two years of fighting, several members of the SMC and a few in the People’s Council negotiated a secret surrender to the Legion. When the Republicans discovered their plan to open the gates to the enemy, they went to the army camp to order their arrests. Upon hearing the plot, the officers enthusiastically joined it, killing the Republicans and moving to secure the city on behalf of their enemies. They were tired of war and would rather destroy the Republic than send their men to die. The possibility of a position in a larger and grander army was an added bonus. The Legion, however, did not appreciate treachery. When the Legion marched in, they invited the commanders to a feast and killed them. They reformed the republic into an oligarchy, dispersing the People’s Council, reducing the size of the SMC, and placing a Legate-Governor at the head of the government. They renamed the city New Constantine 2257 marked the beginning of a new golden age for some, and a dark age for others. The oligarchy proved more stable than the Overseer’s Regime or the Mercantile Republic. After nearly a decade of war, the Legion had tamed the tribes and left the city in peace. Women, of course, were unhappy with the new order. Until the First Battle of Hoover Dam, trade with the NCR was uninterrupted. However, most of their former trade partners were dead or integrated into the Legion. The exotic tribal goods that fetched such a high price back west now had to be bought in New Mexico. Free men work harder than they did before the wars, but most are willing to accept it if they don’t have to fight. While the city never recaptured its former glory, most were just glad to be at peace. The city’s wealth was now based in slave labour instead of trade. They worked the fields, quarried stone, weaved textiles, forged weapons and armour, and rebuilt the city. Demographics While a significant portion of the population left during and after the Legion conquest, the overall population has increased due to the importation of slaves. The 2275 Census counted a population of 7,000, 80% of whom are slaves. A significant number of new slaves are constantly being born, but the area remains a net-importer of slaves. After Flagstaff and Phoenix, it is the 3rd largest city under Caesar’s control. While there is significant ethnic mixing, there is a clear class divide between those whose descendants came from the vault or California, and more recent immigrants and slaves from Mexico and the Tribes. The Legion garrison usually consisted of 300 men, but was increased to 750 when the Lighthouse and Los Banditos were making trouble. Roughly two thirds of the people were women. While female citizens were never formally enslaved, many were taken by the Legion during various rebellions. Others were sold by their family in times of desperation. Those still nominally free had no legal rights, and even less in practice. Marriages are officially illegal, though an exception is made for couples wed before the Legion conquest. Unofficially, the practice continues amongst the remnants of the peasantry who, while managing to stay out of slavery themselves, are too poor to afford slaves of their own. Economy The city itself mines gold and is a center for the manufacture of weapons, armour, and various consumer goods. The surrounding estates farm cattle, cotton, tobacco, grains, and spices. Trade has suffered as a result of the ongoing conflicts with the NCR. Many merchants are unwilling to cross the Legion-NCR border, meanwhile the Legion bans the trade of militarily useful goods which were once sold to the West, while purchasing little for themselves. The slaves and craftsmen of New Constantine are renowned for their skill in masonry, and often hired by those across Caesar’s Territory seeking to build grant monuments in a traditional, Roman style. Some have even left to find employment in the Mojave, building NCR fortifications and constructing new attractions in the Greater New Vegas area. Factions Caesar’s Legion: The Legion is the ruling faction of New Constantine ' ' The Imperial Emporium: Legion-backed trading company. Led by some of Caesar’s closest fiends, the Emporium is not officially part of the Legion, but the two institutions are closely intertwined and support each other. They are relatively new, inexperienced, and small in terms of trading volume, but their influence extends from Mexico City to San Antonio, up to New Canaan. ' ' The Oligarchia: The newly renamed Supreme Mercantile Council hosts the heads of various mercantile companies (some are joint-stock, with elected CEOs, others are ‘Dynastic’ companies with hereditary positions) as well as representation from the Legion garrison and a few of the tribes subservient to New Constantine. ' ' The Cult of Mars: The Cult was established by the Oligarchia to unify the people of the city, inspire popular support for the Legion, and help organise the city. The Cult is responsible for public celebrations and ceremonies, as well as ‘charitable’ work, such as the care of orphans, who are either indoctrinated into the cult, raise for military service, or (in the case of women) given as ‘rewards’ to the faithful. ' ' The Lighthouse: Formerly a missionary group seeking to convert the tribals, the Lighthouse is now the main resistance to Caesar's Legion. They are known for their use of terrorism against citizens working for the Legion, as well as ‘un-Christian’ institutions, such as companies, slave markets, brothels, and religious groups, both tribal and Legionnaire. These frequently result in the deaths of people most would consider innocent, but the Lighthouse considers them sinful heathens or acceptable losses. NCR Rangers: The Rangers began scouting out New Constantine during the Legion Civil Wars. They have made preliminary contact with The Lighthouse, but consider them dangerous and unreliable. An alliance is being carefully deliberated, but the Rangers know the NCR will one day wish to annex the city, and it can’t accept a fanatical regime as a member state. Los Banditos: a band of outlaws and ranchers from Mexico. They've recently moved into the area, claiming they will free it from Caesar's grip. More likely they're just trying to escape law enforcement down south. Category:Locations Category:Factions Category:United States